In the world of B2B marketing, the goal is not to increase brand mass consumer awareness. Rather, it is to identify and engage the right business stakeholders involved in purchase decisions. For enterprise-level accounts, this increasingly means reaching and speaking directly to the needs of the C-suite. 

Driven by the speed of transformation in recent years, B2B executives are increasingly taking a hands-on approach in the purchase decision-making process. They are placing greater scrutiny on the people they deal with and require potential partnerships to both meet their business needs and benefit their brand image.

Staying informed is a leadership priority and enables execs to guide their businesses through rapidly changing social and market conditions. Research from ITSMA found that 88% of executives use online channels, including blog posts, social media, webinars and other virtual events, to research solutions and keep up with industry trends.

The importance of engaging the senior team goes beyond the ability to influence purchasing decisions. Executives are not only key decision-makers within their organisations. They are also industry influencers. If they value your content, you can not only win their regard but that of their peers and followers.

As a result, creating content to engage the C-suite is becoming a top priority for B2B brands. In this article, we'll explore what you need to consider when designing a content strategy to engage the C-Suite and examine what sets high-performance content apart from the rest.

Have Something Worth Saying

As any experienced business marketer knows, reaching these influential decision makers can be challenging. C-level professionals are busy, focused people. They have high standards and are masters at determining what is worth their time.

To gain their attention, you have to present a unique point of view in an interesting, compelling way. Derivative, uninspired content won't make the cut. 

Provide fresh thinking and original content that tells them something new and different about the world. Instead of being something they should read, it needs to be something they want to read. Otherwise, your white paper or report will stay, untouched, in their downloads file; growing increasingly outdated until it is eventually deleted.

However, content creation is only half the battle, you also need to consider how you will get in front of C-suite audiences.

Reach Executives Through Their Peers

When it comes to reaching C-suite audiences, understand that executives prefer learning from each other. This means you should aim to use their peers to engage with them.

For example, you can interview industry influencers that your C-level audience want to listen to and host interactive online events like round table discussions. Or you could partner with respected publishers or institutes to research topics they care about.

And don’t forget your own organisation’s C-suite. They can play an important role in creating and sharing content that speaks to other execs and engages other C-level figures as peers. Work with your C-suite to create content they can share on LinkedIn and other social media platforms. This could include industry insights, predictions and reports, lessons learned and achievements, but it could also go further.

Today’s decision-makers are also looking beyond a company's product or service offering. Instead, they are viewing corporations through a human lens. They want to make sure they are partnering with other brands that share similar values to their own.

High-level executives — particularly the CEO — serve as a proxy of a company’s culture. Now, more than ever before, they are expected to represent the vision, value, and face of their organisation. They are in a unique position to tell their organisation’s story and to talk about challenges they have experienced that others can benefit from hearing about. Every leader has something they are deeply passionate about, which motivates them to do what they do. Make sure you take advantage of that and blend your leaders' unique voices into your content strategy.

Focus on Board-Level Issues

To appeal to C-suite audiences, it is important that your content directly address their top-of-mind concerns and reflects their priorities. For example, according to 2020 research from ITSMA, the top five business priorities for executives are:

• Transforming to enable digital business,

• Upgrading infrastructure to enable remote work and collaboration,

• Cutting costs,

• Growing revenue,

• Increasing productivity.

Executives are also responsible for leading their company through all the changes that come with growth opportunities. This is important to keep in mind if you want to convince them to make any type of substantial change. You need to provide ample tools and resources to help them navigate the transition smoothly.

Another high-level concern for chief executives is being at the forefront of innovation and making the best use of technology. You can meet this need by providing information about what is on the horizon for their industry. For instance, evaluating technology options in your sector and discussing what is best in class (and why).

However, bear in mind that the C-suite is not a monolith. CEO, CFO, CIO, CMO… they all head different business units with different informational needs. Chief financial officers might be concerned with how your solution will drive greater profit. A chief human resources officer will likely want to know how easy it is to train people to use the new system. Meanwhile, a CIO would be questioning how your product will integrate with their existing technology infrastructure. So, look at what would capture the interests of each member of the C-suite and break out different examples.

Pay Attention to How Executives Consume Content

Content has no value if it is not seen and shared. (And remember, you want them to share because C-suite professionals listen to each other).

To achieve this, we need to pay attention to content preferences, understanding the how, where, who and when.

Multiple studies have found that executives tend to be the most receptive to content first thing in the morning. The 2020 State of B2B Content Consumption and Demand report got even more granular, stating that Tuesday at 10 AM local time was the best time to reach C-Level professionals. The same report also found that ebooks, white papers, and guides remained the three most highly requested content types in 2020 — though there was also a notable increase in webinar requests. 

However, the results of these broad B2B content consumption surveys can only take you so far. You need to have a system in place to carefully track the performance metrics of your content. Data analysis can uncover when our individual targets are most receptive and what types of content they find most sharable day to day.

This is the only way you will be able to nail down the content preferences of your specific executive audience. But doing so ensures you create and deliver content that seamlessly integrates into their lifestyles and meets their needs.

Best Practices When Writing for Senior Executives

Creating quality C-suite content is not easy. It takes time and effort to ensure a piece of content stands out. To help you on your way, here are some important things to keep in mind when producing content.

Be Tightly Focused and Well Structured

Your work must be succinct and relevant. Give them a clear reason to engage with your content and don't take too much of their time. This doesn’t mean that they won’t consume long-form — but you have to give them ample reason to choose to download a longer report.

The first touch must be fast, so use punchy and compelling short-form content like executive summaries and highlights reels to draw them in. Get to the point quickly and be ruthless with your editing pen.

Pay Attention to Detail

Senior executives see the big picture, but they demand attention to detail. Don’t let your efforts go to waste because of sloppy practices or poor design. Make sure to check for spelling mistakes, fix broken links, use high-quality images, and confirm that content displays well on mobile. Also, consider the quality of the information you are presenting. All too often we find articles that cite outdated research or where writers have failed to fact-check or simply recycle old data. Business leaders have seen all of those numbers before and will quickly dismiss your article as unoriginal and unhelpful.

Understand That Design Is Crucial

Something we can not stress enough is that content design should never be an afterthought. When targeting an extremely busy, selective audience, the battle is won or lost in the first few seconds they encounter your content.

Good visual design and layout play a critical role when it comes to grabbing an exec’s attention. It is what catches the eye, and also lends your work credibility. It can be the difference between success and failure.

B2B content often contains dense, technical information which can take some time to parse out if presented strictly as text. Visual storytelling allows us to present this same information in a far more immediate and compelling way. It helps establish the tone and provide emotional cues about your brand. As such, you need to pay just as much attention to the visual details as you do to your copy and data. You want to ensure that text, image, and layout reinforce each other and convey a cohesive narrative. Even for something as seemingly trivial as your company email signature.

Remember! Execs Don’t Work in Isolation

When marketing to a single high profile, high-value target, the temptation is to write hyper-personalised content and send it directly to them, saying ‘I think you might find this interesting'. However, the chances of an executive officer reading something from an unknown sender are slim.

They are more likely to engage in the first instance when content has been forwarded by someone they know. So, when building your content marketing strategies, take an account based marketing (ABM) perspective. Consider not just the executive themselves, but also their senior team, executive assistants, etc. Also, consider how all the content you send to a target account fits together. So that when boards of directors meet to make a decision, they all have a similar impression of your brand.

B2B Content Marketing Done Right

As a B2B marketer, you have to work hard to get the attention of C-suite members. You have to make sure your content is truly addressing their needs and providing new ideas that they have yet to encounter elsewhere.

1827 Marketing is here for you. Contact us today to learn how we can help you create and deliver original content that meets your audience’s needs better than anyone else!